President Ernesto Zedillo compared them to 19th-century US invaders, while a prominent Mexican TV presenter said she felt like she was "back in the time of the Spanish conquest".
The latest conquistadores, international human rights observers, have swapped sabres and bibles for camcorders and notebooks, monitoring the increasingly aggressive Mexican army presence in Zapatista rebel territory.
"I am allergic to violence," said Mr Zedillo, during a state trip to Venezuela last week, "especially against weak and manipulated people like the Indians."
His comments came as a surprise to the villagers of Diez de Abril, where hundreds of state police and troops went on the rampage last week, sacking homes, stealing work tools and beating villagers.
Three Norwegian observers were bundled into a police truck, hoods placed over their heads and one of them was punched repeatedly in the kidneys. Jose Alfredo Mendez, a 17-year-old villager, was beaten with rifle butts, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, before being thrown into prison.
Since the Zapatista movement called for observers to monitor the huge army presence in rebel territory in April 1995, over 3,000 national and international witnesses have spent time in "civilian peace camps", reporting on the impact of long-term military presence close to Indian villages.
"The army brought prostitution, drugs and alcohol into the villages," said Ms Martha Benedetti, an Argentinian volunteer. "Women are afraid to bathe in the river, or gather firewood, as the soldiers watch them and shout obscenities."
The Zapatistas continued their resistance preparations last week. Ms Mama Julia, an elderly Tzeltal Indian woman, collected pineapple husks in la Garrucha village. The fermented husks would become vinegar and neutralise the painful effects of tear-gas, the Chiapas police's latest weapon used to gain entry to rebel villages.
Over a nearby mountain, villagers in Morelia fashioned long poles from jungle trees, sharpening them to a fine point. These were then placed on the local football field to prevent security force helicopters from landing there.
Hundreds of rebel sympathisers also took turns to guard five aguascalientes or Zapatista cultural centres, where dormitories, kitchens, libraries, health clinics, schools and drinking water proved the Zapatistas could build parallel power structures even as war seemed imminent.
While the Mexican army maps out rebel positions with satellite technology, Zapatistas have spread out in small units, preparing for a prolonged guerrilla war.
Last January troops entered Zapatista villages, but were beaten back by women with sticks and sharp words, leading to angry protest marches across the country.
The government is now sending police and army troops into villages on the pretext of detaining foreigners and breaking up autonomous rebel councils, which have replaced government rule across almost half of Chiapas state.
The government's anti-foreigner campaign has turned into outright xenophobia, however, as Chiapas radio stations call on Mexicans to denounce foreigners to local authorities. "If you have a foreigner living close by and don't know what they are doing, call this number," said Chiapas state radio, in repeated public announcements.
More than 200 foreigners have been ordered to leave Mexico in the past two years, 28 in the last month alone.
The human-rights observers act as mediators when conflict arises with security forces, angering army and police who face "uppity" Europeans rather than vulnerable Indians who have nowhere to run should the war restart.
The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), with representatives from Mexico's 56 indigenous peoples, called on Indian peoples to set up their own autonomous councils in Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla, taking the Zapatista challenge to fresh territories.